REGINA SILVEIRA'S DESTRUCTION OF POWER

By Álvaro de Benito

Barcelona's Center of Image La Virreina (La Virreina Centre de la Imatge) is dedicating an extensive exhibition to Regina Silveira (Porto Alegre, Brazil, 1939), one of the multimedia artists and key figures of Latin American conceptual art. Within the exhibition line of the center, which advocates the exploration of the aesthetic and ideological languages of images, this show curated by Isabella Lenzi covers a wide range of the Brazilian artist's research, experimentation and artistic production, particularly that developed with technical reproduction techniques and the circulation of images.

REGINA SILVEIRA'S DESTRUCTION OF POWER

In this constant research that she has been conducting for more than six decades, Silveira has sought to find, through analysis and criticism, central elements that can deconstruct conventional representational systems. For all these reasons, the questioning of the possibilities of perspective and visual perception, irony as an instrument and the rethinking of concepts have always been present in his projects.

 

Destructuras de poder focuses especially on his production made during the Brazilian authoritarian period between 1964 and 1985, a proposal mediated by the repressive environment of censorship and violence. Perhaps this is a little known part of the artist, but it is fundamental to understand the functioning of alternative systems of artistic exchange networks and mail art outside the industry and the market.

 

Observing from the media, which she also uses for her idea of diffusion, Silveira analyzes institutional power and its symbolism, later evolving towards a more social focus and even towards a primitive decolonization of the clichés associated with her country and Latin America.

 

This exhibition includes, in addition to his most recognizable works, elements such as sketches and models of large-scale architectural and urban interventions and an augmented reality piece located in the courtyard of the Palau de la Virreina.

 

Destructions of Power. Regina Silveira can be seen until March 30, 2025 at Center of Image La Virreina (La Virreina Centre de la Imatge), La Rambla, 99, Barcelona (Spain).

 

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